Let’s break down a few of these and explain how they pertain to having an online presence and regular interaction with customers and clients.

Clear Communication

Under the category of social skills, there is communication. Specifically, being able to communicate clearly and collaborate with people.

If we break this down even further, we’re talking about self-regulation as well, which means being aware of your feelings, being able to address them, then being able to communicate your thoughts articulately with others in order to come to a solution.

When you’re in marketing, particularly a brand that commonly interacts with the public, these skills are imperative towards forming a good line of communication with your audience.

In addition, you must be aware of the fact that people’s image of a company is formed through their interactions with representatives of the business.

For example, if they feel that they aren’t being heard, they’re left confused as to how to solve a problem, or they’re being met with unhelpfulness in general, that is the feeling they will have about the company overall.

Empathy

When you’re interacting with customers, you really have to think about it from their perspective, which brings us to empathy.

Being able to understand why someone is reaching out to you or why they might want to voice a concern is an invaluable skill.

Being able to converse with coworkers, customers, and potential clients daily is pretty commonplace. As such, it’s vital that you feel confident in your ability to do so.

There is a back and forth to communication that can only be accomplished through empathy.

Someone states their thoughts or opinions; you receive them and understand them; you think of an appropriate response; and then you give your feedback.

None of this can be accomplished if you aren’t willing or able to think about how the other individual involved in the conversation might be feeling.

So, in this case, it’s doubly effective you think in an empathetic way. Think of their need to solve an issue and via which avenue they might be trying to accomplish this goal.

If we simplify it even further, you must think of the two of you as a team. You can’t solve anything if you don’t work together.

They might throw a lot of questions and/or problems at you, but it’s your job to understand how they’re feeling and work together to find the best possible solution that works for both sides.

Self-Awareness

Now, if you’re able to put yourself in the shoes of your conversation partner, you should be able to understand the other half of the equation — yourself.

Empathy and good communication are two huge pieces of the puzzle, but you should also understand how things that you say can be perceived by people.

Usually, if you have good empathetic and communication skills, self-awareness will also fall into place, but it’s important to note it separately too.

In many cases like this, where you might be publicly addressing individuals online, you have to think about how the world will view your statements.

That means you’ll spend more time thinking about the real message that you’re putting out there. It’s easy to type a response and click “send,” even if you’re doing your best to be empathetic and communicative.

However, are your statements representing you and your company the way that you want them to?

Will they be interpreted properly by your entire community?

Are they something that you’d like to have existing in the public eye forever?

I don’t say that to scare you or send a dramatic message, but it is somewhat accurate. Once you post things online, they’re there forever. If you send a message that you later regret, it’s quite hard to take it back.

Important Components of Global Corporate Reputation

Now that we’ve discussed traits of emotionally intelligent people and how they relate to online communication, let’s talk about how they can affect your global reputation.

As we talked about above, an interaction with one representative of a company can completely skew one individual’s view of a business.